What is "propagation" of my domain name?

"Propagation" happens whenever there is a change to your domain's nameservers, or you register a new domain name. It can also happen if you have a laspe in your domain registration of more than a day, and you are dropped from the Domain Name System.

The change happens very quickly at the registrar and in the DNS system... the "whois" info. But "propagation" is really the process of waiting for all the world's ISPs to update their DNS caches to reflect the new nameserver info changes for the day. Many ISPs do that daily... which is why it takes about 24 hours for much of the propagation to happen, as we cycle through the world's time zones and back to our own. Some big ISPs do it several times a day. But some pokey ISPs do it every other day or so. You may have just missed the DNS cache update cycle for your ISP, or a sluggish ISP in your local network.

That might help explain the inconsistancies of propagation. For your specific domain, here are some tools to help monitor the process and troubleshoot problems:

Here is a place you can use to check if a new domain is resolving, and if the server is up for a currently hosted domain:

http://alertra.com/
Put your domain name in the box on the right side of the nav bar.

It checks to see if the site comes up from a bunch of places all over the globe. Can help identify if *you* are having trouble seeing your site, or if *everyone* is, and whether there is trouble on just parts of the global network.

Example:
Spotcheck Results for domainname.com
Time (US/Eastern) Checked From Result KBytes Secs Kbps
07/10/2004 10:16:44 Atlanta USA OK 0.6 0.34 13.74
07/10/2004 10:16:46 Hong Kong CHINA OK 0.6 1.51 3.10
07/10/2004 10:16:44 Las Vegas USA OK 0.6 0.63 7.42
07/10/2004 10:16:44 Chicago USA OK 0.6 0.28 16.87
07/10/2004 10:16:44 Orlando USA OK 0.6 0.42 11.25
07/10/2004 10:16:45 London UK OK 0.6 0.53 8.93
07/10/2004 10:16:45 Frankfurt GERMANY OK 0.6 0.85 5.53
07/10/2004 10:16:44 Oklahoma City USA OK 0.6 0.43 10.94


Here is another tool: a propagation checker. It shows you the IP address for your domain from 30 ISPs all over the world.

http://www.dixiehelp.com/tools/netutil/index.php
Fill in your doman name at "The Propagator"

You are looking for it to show you the IP (207.99.111.140, for instance) that we sent you in your "Welcome to Gryphyn Media Hosting" email. (Don't worry about that server in Albania that times out... it always does.) IfF only some of the ISPs have the right IP, you are not done propagating.

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